Cisco Reports Third Quarter FY21 Earnings

News Summary:

• Overall performance: $12.8 billion in revenue, up 7% year over year with broad-based strength across the business; GAAP EPS $0.68 and Non-GAAP EPS $0.83, each up 5% year over year
• 10% year-over-year total product order growth representing the strongest demand in nearly a decade
• Continued momentum in transforming business to software and subscriptions: 81% of software revenue sold as a subscription, up from 76% last quarter

Q3 Results:

• Revenue: $12.8 billion
  • Increase of 7% year over year
• Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.68; Non-GAAP: $0.83
  • GAAP EPS increased 5% year over year
  • Non-GAAP EPS increased 5% year over year

Q4 Guidance: 

• Revenue: 6% to 8% growth year over year
• Earnings per Share: GAAP: $0.64 to $0.69; Non-GAAP: $0.81 to $0.83

SAN JOSE, Calif., May 19, 2021 — Cisco today reported third quarter results for the period ended May 1, 2021. Cisco reported third quarter revenue of $12.8 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $2.9 billion or $0.68 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $3.5 billion or $0.83 per share.

“Cisco had a great quarter with strong demand across the business,” said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco. “We are confident in our strategy and our ability to lead the next phase of the recovery as our customers accelerate their adoption of hybrid work, digital transformation, cloud, and continued strong uptake of our subscription-based offerings.”

“We executed well with strong product orders, and solid growth in revenue, net income, and EPS,” said Scott Herren, CFO of Cisco.  “Our investments in innovation and accelerated shift to more software offerings and subscriptions led to double-digit growth in deferred revenue, remaining performance obligations and higher levels of recurring revenue.”

The third quarter of fiscal 2021 had 14 weeks compared with 13 weeks in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.

Reconciliations between net income, EPS, and other measures on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis are provided in the tables located in the section entitled “Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP Measures.”

Financial Summary

All comparative percentages are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted.

Q3 FY 2021 Highlights

Revenue — Total revenue was up 7% at $12.8 billion, with product revenue up 6% and service revenue up 8%. Revenue by geographic segment was: Americas up 2%, EMEA up 11%, and APJC up 19%. Product revenue performance was broad-based with growth in Security, up 13%, Infrastructure Platforms up 6%, and Applications up 5%.

Gross Margin —  On a GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 63.9%, 62.6%, and 67.4%, respectively, as compared with 64.9%, 63.7%, and 67.7%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.

On a non-GAAP basis, total gross margin, product gross margin, and service gross margin were 66.0%, 64.9%, and 68.7%, respectively, as compared with 66.6%, 65.8%, and 68.9%, respectively, in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.

Total gross margins by geographic segment were: 66.5% for the Americas, 65.6% for EMEA and 64.7% for APJC.

Operating Expenses —  On a GAAP basis, operating expenses were $4.7 billion, up 8%, and were 36.9% of revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $4.1 billion, up 9%, and were 32.4% of revenue.

Operating Income — GAAP operating income was $3.5 billion, up 1%, with GAAP operating margin of 27.1%. Non-GAAP operating income was $4.3 billion, up 3%, with non-GAAP operating margin at 33.6%.

Provision for Income Taxes — The GAAP tax provision rate was 20.3%. The non-GAAP tax provision rate was 19.0%.

Net Income and EPS — On a GAAP basis, net income was $2.9 billion, an increase of 3%, and EPS was $0.68, an increase of 5%. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $3.5 billion, an increase of 4%, and EPS was $0.83, an increase of 5%.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities — $3.9 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2021, a decrease of 8% compared with $4.2 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2020.

Balance Sheet and Other Financial Highlights

Cash and Cash Equivalents and Investments — $23.6 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2021, compared with $29.4 billion at the end of fiscal 2020.

Deferred Revenue — $20.9 billion, up 12% in total, with deferred product revenue up 20%. Deferred service revenue was up 7%.

Remaining Performance Obligations — $28.1 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2021, up 10%.

Capital Allocation — In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, we returned $2.1 billion to stockholders through share buybacks and dividends. We declared and paid a cash dividend of $0.37 per common share, or $1.6 billion, and repurchased approximately 10 million shares of common stock under our stock repurchase program at an average price of $48.71 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $510 million. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under the program is $8.7 billion with no termination date.

Acquisitions

In the third quarter of fiscal 2021, we closed the following acquisitions:

• Acacia Communications, Inc., a public fabless semiconductor company that develops, manufactures and sells high-speed coherent optical interconnect products that are designed to transform communications networks through improvements in performance, capacity and cost.
• IMImobile PLC, a United Kingdom-based publicly-traded cloud communications software and services company.
• Dashbase, Inc., an enterprise software company.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, we closed the acquisition of Slido s.r.o, a privately held company that provides an audience interaction platform.

Guidance for Q4 FY 2021

Cisco expects to achieve the following results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021:

Cisco estimates that GAAP EPS will be $0.64 to $0.69 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021.

A reconciliation between the Guidance for Q4 FY 2021 on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis is provided in the table entitled “GAAP to non-GAAP Guidance for Q4 FY 2021” located in the section entitled “Reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP Measures.”

Editor’s Notes:

• Q3 fiscal year 2021 conference call to discuss Cisco’s results along with its guidance will be held on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Conference call number is 1-888-848-6507 (United States) or 1-212-519-0847 (international).
• Conference call replay will be available from 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, May 19, 2021 to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, May 26, 2021 at 1-866-461-2738 (United States) or 1-203-369-1354 (international). The replay will also be available via webcast on the Cisco Investor Relations website at https://investor.cisco.com.
• Additional information regarding Cisco’s financials, as well as a webcast of the conference call with visuals designed to guide participants through the call, will be available at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time, May 19, 2021. Text of the conference call’s prepared remarks will be available within 24 hours of completion of the call. The webcast will include both the prepared remarks and the question-and-answer session. This information, along with the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation information, will be available on the Cisco Investor Relations website at https://investor.cisco.com.

Forward Looking Statements, Non-GAAP Information and Additional Information
This release may be deemed to contain forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding future events (such as continued execution of our strategy, our ability to lead the next phase of the recovery as our customers accelerate their adoption of hybrid work, digital transformation, cloud, continued strong uptake of our subscription-based offerings, our investments in innovation, and accelerated shift to more software offerings and subscriptions) and the future financial performance of Cisco (including the guidance for Q4 FY 2021) that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results due to a variety of factors, including: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; business and economic conditions and growth trends in the networking industry, our customer markets and various geographic regions; global economic conditions and uncertainties in the geopolitical environment; overall information technology spending; the growth and evolution of the Internet and levels of capital spending on Internet-based systems; variations in customer demand for products and services, including sales to the service provider market and other customer markets; the return on our investments in certain priorities, key growth areas, and in certain geographical locations, as well as maintaining leadership in routing, switching and services; the timing of orders and manufacturing and customer lead times; changes in customer order patterns or customer mix; insufficient, excess or obsolete inventory; variability of component costs; variations in sales channels, product costs or mix of products sold; our ability to successfully acquire businesses and technologies and to successfully integrate and operate these acquired businesses and technologies; our ability to achieve expected benefits of our partnerships; increased competition in our product and service markets, including the data center market; dependence on the introduction and market acceptance of new product offerings and standards; rapid technological and market change; manufacturing and sourcing risks; product defects and returns; litigation involving patents, other intellectual property, antitrust, stockholder and other matters, and governmental investigations; our ability to achieve the benefits of the restructuring and possible changes in the size and timing of the related charges; cyber-attacks, data breaches or malware; vulnerabilities and critical security defects; terrorism; natural catastrophic events; any other pandemic or epidemic; our ability to achieve the benefits anticipated from our investments in sales, engineering, service, marketing and manufacturing activities; our ability to recruit and retain key personnel; our ability to manage financial risk, and to manage expenses during economic downturns; risks related to the global nature of our operations, including our operations in emerging markets; currency fluctuations and other international factors; changes in provision for income taxes, including changes in tax laws and regulations or adverse outcomes resulting from examinations of our income tax returns; potential volatility in operating results; and other factors listed in Cisco’s most recent reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K filed on February 16, 2021 and September 3, 2020, respectively. The financial information contained in this release should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in Cisco’s most recent reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K as each may be amended from time to time. Cisco’s results of operations for the three and nine months ended May 1, 2021 are not necessarily indicative of Cisco’s operating results for any future periods. Any projections in this release are based on limited information currently available to Cisco, which is subject to change. Although any such projections and the factors influencing them will likely change, Cisco will not necessarily update the information, since Cisco will only provide guidance at certain points during the year. Such information speaks only as of the date of this release.

This release includes non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP gross margins, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP operating income and margin, non-GAAP effective tax rates, non-GAAP interest and other income (loss), net, and non-GAAP net income per share data for the periods presented. It also includes future estimated ranges for gross margin, operating margin, tax provision rate and EPS on a non-GAAP basis.

These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. Cisco believes that non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with Cisco’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and that these measures should only be used to evaluate Cisco’s results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures.

Cisco believes that the presentation of non-GAAP measures when shown in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures, provides useful information to investors and management regarding financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and its historical and projected results of operations.

For its internal budgeting process, Cisco’s management uses financial statements that do not include, when applicable, share-based compensation expense, amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, acquisition-related/divestiture costs, significant asset impairments and restructurings, significant litigation settlements and other contingencies, gains and losses on equity investments, the income tax effects of the foregoing and significant tax matters. Cisco’s management also uses the foregoing non-GAAP measures, in addition to the corresponding GAAP measures, in reviewing the financial results of Cisco. In prior periods, Cisco has excluded other items that it no longer excludes for purposes of its non-GAAP financial measures. From time to time in the future there may be other items that Cisco may exclude for purposes of its internal budgeting process and in reviewing its financial results. For additional information on the items excluded by Cisco from one or more of its non-GAAP financial measures, refer to the Form 8-K regarding this release furnished today to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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